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Trevor Story’s $140 Million Red Sox Deal Nearly Fell Apart Over Vaccine Concerns + More
Trevor Story’s Red Sox Deal Nearly Fell Apart Over Vaccine Concerns
Star shortstop Trevor Story’s six-year, $140 million contract with the Red Sox was a critical move for Boston to keep pace with the defending American League East champion Rays and the retooled Blue Jays. Leading up to the completion of the deal, though, the whole thing reportedly almost fell apart over a key issue: Story’s vaccination status.
Story was hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, which led to a three-day wait between reports of the agreement and Story’s official introduction as a member of the team Wednesday. Story finally agreed to get vaccinated Tuesday, paving the way for the deal to go through.
Story’s decision is part of the team’s larger effort to get its players vaccinated. Several Red Sox players were hesitant to get the vaccine over the past year, including All-Star shortstop and catcher Kevin Plawecki, who noted the risk of being unavailable for games in 2022 — particularly in Toronto, where unvaccinated players will be ineligible.
POLITICO-Harvard poll: 40 Percent of Parents Believe Masks at School Harmed Their Kids
A significant percentage of parents whose children wore masks in school during the last year believe it harmed their education, social interactions and mental health, according to a POLITICO-Harvard survey.
According to the survey, more than 4 in 10 believe mask-wearing harmed their children’s overall scholastic experience, compared to 11 percent who said it helped. Nearly half of parents said masks made no difference.
Forty-six percent of parents said mask-wearing hurt their child’s social learning and interactions, and 39 percent told pollsters it affected their child’s mental and emotional health.
Yankees, Mets Owners Pressed NYC Mayor to Lift Vaccine Mandate: Report
The heads of New York City baseball teams the Mets and Yankees pressed Mayor Eric Adams (D) to lift the city’s vaccine mandate for performers and athletes ahead of his decision this week to do so, according to The New York Times.
Yankees president Randy Levine spoke with Adams’ administration about baseball being an outdoor sport and thus less dangerous for the spread of the novel coronavirus, The Times reported. And Steven Cohen, the owner of the Mets, has paid $10,000 per month to a lobbying firm to push on several issues, including COVID-19 protocols.
Adams, a Mets fan, told The Times he spoke to sports teams about the issue, but emphasized he had not been lobbied.
International Airlines Are Dropping Mask Mandates. Are U.S. Carriers Next?
As many countries lift coronavirus restrictions and entry rules for travelers, some international airlines are also easing requirements for the journey.
Dutch airline KLM will no longer enforce a face mask requirement onboard starting this week, despite government rules in the Netherlands, along with other carriers. The Netherlands lifted its mask mandate for public transit Wednesday, but it still requires them for air travel.
Last week, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways also announced plans to drop their mask requirements, after Jet2 became the first British airline to remove the requirement. The British government lifted mandates on transportation in February.
Army Discharges Another 24 Soldiers for Refusing the Coronavirus Vaccine
The Army has now discharged 27 soldiers for refusing the order to receive the mandatory coronavirus vaccination, the service announced Thursday. The Army announced last week that the first three soldiers were separated from the service for refusing the vaccine. In a weekly update about the vaccination status of the force, another 24 soldiers were listed has kicked out for refusing the vaccine.
As of Thursday, 694 soldiers have requested permanent medical exemptions with 664 denied and 20 approved. For permanent religious exemptions, 4,034 soldiers have made requests. Of those, 770 were denied while two were approved.
However, 2,735 soldiers are still refusing the vaccine, and 3,275 official written reprimands have been issued related to those refusals. Army commanders have relieved six Army leaders, including two battalion commanders.
Masks Back up at UCSD Health as COVID Signals Surge in San Diego Wastewater
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:
Less than a week after operating in the least-restrictive “low prevalence” level of its new normal plan, UC San Diego Health told employees Thursday that some restrictions will return immediately due to a surge in the amount of virus recently detected in local wastewater.
Dr. Christopher Longhurst, the health system’s medical director, said that experts gathered Thursday and deemed the increase statistically significant enough to take action, especially given that the upper bound for operations at the lowest level of precaution is 1 million viruses per liter.
The biggest change is for thousands of non-clinical health system workers who were able to take their masks off for the first time in some time as the new operating plan took effect Monday. But now that operations have shifted up one level of severity, those masks will have to go back up.
China Doesn’t Have a COVID Exit Plan. Two Years in, People Are Fed up and Angry.
For two years, people in China have largely tolerated living under some of the world’s most stringent COVID-19 controls.
Restricted borders, constant digital tracking, and the potential for mass testing and snap lockdowns whenever a handful of cases appeared were all trade-offs for a comparatively COVID-free life while the pandemic raged overseas.
But China’s inability to bring its latest outbreak under control so far has prompted online rumblings from frustrated citizens, as questions about Beijing’s zero-COVID strategy break into the mainstream for the first time.
China’s TikTok Is Russia’s New Disinformation Machine
China’s TikTok app is the world’s most powerful social media platform. Is Beijing now using it to spread Russian disinformation on Ukraine? Two media watchdog organizations suggest the Chinese state is in fact doing so. According to Tracking Exposed, the Chinese video-sharing app is censoring content in Russia on an “unprecedented scale for a global social media platform,” blocking 95 percent of content previously available to Russian users.
TikTok said on March 6 it was responding to Russia’s new “fake news” law when it suspended live-streaming and uploads of new content by Russian users. But Tracking Exposed said TikTok’s actions go “above and beyond what is required in response to the Russian ‘fake news’ law.”
The Chinese app is leaving space for Kremlin-controlled information. “With these recent changes, TikTok runs the risk of effectively converting itself into a propaganda channel for the Kremlin,” Tracking Exposed said.
Meta Investing $800 Million in New Kansas City Data Center
Facebook parent Meta Platforms will invest $800 million in a nearly 1-million square foot hyperscale data center in Kansas City, Missouri.
The data center will be located in the city’s 5.5 million-square-foot data center campus, Golden Plains Technology Park, and is expected to support more than 1,300 jobs at peak construction and up to 100 operational jobs when it comes online in 2024.
The move comes as the tech giant ramps up its efforts to build the metaverse, a computer-generated environment where users can interact with each other in virtual reality.
Amazon, Facebook and Google All Keep Track of Your Habits. Here’s How to Keep Your Info Safe Online.
Your device says a lot about you: Your pastimes, your taste in music, your curiosities and the things you shop for. So how do you maintain your privacy online, even with the people who are closest to you?
Here are a few simple tricks to help you keep your secrets under wraps. (Note: Apps and websites do not always work the same across all devices and operating systems. If something isn’t located in the menus precisely as I say, look around for a similar action.)
Teens Arrested in Hack of Microsoft and Okta but Haven’t Been Charged
Police in London has arrested seven young people between the ages of 16 and 21 for allegedly hacking Microsoft and Okta under the hacker group name LAPSUS$. All seven people have been released and none have been formally charged with a crime. At least not yet.
The LAPSUS$ hacking group recently took credit for hacking Microsoft, posting source code to Cortana and Bing. And earlier this week the same group boasted on its Telegram channel that it had infiltrated Okta, a claim that was partially true but wildly inflated.
EU Is One Step Closer to Reigning in Apple, Google and Other Tech Giants
The European Union has laid out its plans for the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will mainly target messaging apps to offer a better choice for users, and could have big repercussions for tech giants like Apple and Google.
According to the European Union, its regulators agreed on new rules to the act, such as targeting companies that have over 45 million users, and have a market cap value of $82 billion / £62 billion / AU$ 109 billion.
If these companies were to break a rule in the DMA, they could be fined up to 10% of their total worldwide turnover at that time, alongside an additional 20% if further rules are repeatedly broken.
This could be the start of a slippery slope for Apple, Google, and other vendors.
NYC Employee Unions Bash Mayor Adams’ Plan to Roll Back COVID Vaccine Mandates for Athletes but Not Cops, Teachers + More
NYC Employee Unions Bash Mayor Adams’ Plan to Roll Back COVID Vaccine Mandates for Athletes but Not Cops, Teachers
It’s a slam dunk for Kyrie Irving — and still a potential pink slip for city workers. The NYPD’s biggest union slammed Mayor Adams’ plan to lift the city’s private-sector vaccine mandate for athletes and performers, charging the city created a double-standard to clear the Brooklyn Nets unvaccinated star for action inside the Barclays Center even as nine police officers who declined to get jabbed were fired.
“If the mandate isn’t necessary for famous people, then it’s not necessary for the cops who are protecting our city in the middle of a crime crisis,” fumed Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch in a Thursday statement.
“I’m not surprised,” said Lieutenants Benevolent Association head Lou Turco. “It is hypocritical to allow an athlete not to get vaccinated while forcing police officers to get vaccinated to keep their jobs. We’re told the vaccination mandate is necessary because they’re following the science. Where is the science that supports immunity if you’re able to make free throws or throw a baseball 95 miles an hour?”
A United Federation of Teachers spokeswoman echoed the police unions’ opposition. “The city should not create exceptions to its vaccination requirements without compelling reason,” the spokeswoman said.
Biden Demands Dr. Oz, Herschel Walker Step Down Amid Senate Runs
President Biden requested that two members of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition, who were appointed by former President Trump, either step down or face termination amid their U.S. Senate runs in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Clearly, Joe Biden can’t be around anyone who doesn’t completely fall in line with his fear-mongering authoritarian one-size-fits-all COVID handling,” tweeted Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is running for Senate in Pennsylvania.”I am proud of my service and will not resign.”
“It’s sad that he would politicize such an important issue like health,” Oz said. “The doctor he should ask to resign is Dr. Fauci, for a multitude of obvious reasons.”
NYC Mayor Officially Exempts Athletes, Performers From COVID Vax Mandate
New York City Mayor Eric Adams officially exempted athletes and performers from the city’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate on Thursday.
The vaccination mandate affected New York City sports teams. Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving was among those and had been defiant against getting the jab since the start of the 2021-22 season. The mandate would have blocked some New York Yankees and New York Mets baseball players from taking the field to start the season too.
Since taking office, Adams has been relaxing COVID-19 policies put in place by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Last week, Adams said he expected to eventually roll back the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for private-sector employers.
Airline CEOs Urge Biden to End Mask Mandate, Testing Requirements
The CEOs of 10 airlines and cargo carriers have signed a letter to President Joe Biden saying he should end the transportation mask mandate and testing requirements for international travelers.
In a new letter, industry group Airlines for America wrote, “now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions — including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate — that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.”
The CEOs of Alaska Airlines, American Airlines (AAL), Atlas Air Worldwide, Delta Air Lines (DAL), FedEx Express, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways (JBLU), Southwest Airlines (LUV), United Airlines (UAL) and UPS Airlines signed the letter.
LA Says It Has Terminated 24 City Employees Over COVID Vaccination Requirements
Months after Los Angeles rolled out requirements for city workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the city said that as of last week, it had terminated 24 employees for violating those rules.
The terminated employees include a dozen workers at the Los Angeles Fire Department, as well as smaller numbers of employees in the city attorney’s office, the Los Angeles Police Department, the parks department and Los Angeles World Airports, according to the city personnel department.
As of last week, an additional 53 L.A. city employees had received formal paperwork that precedes possible discipline or termination for violating the rules, and seven more LAPD employees were awaiting action by a disciplinary panel, according to personnel department spokesman Bruce Whidden.
Judge Rules That a Dozen Virginia Students Can Ask for Mask Mandates — but No More
A federal judge in Charlottesville ruled Wednesday that a handful of schools in Virginia could require face masks if necessary to protect a dozen immunocompromised children whose families sued over mask-optional policies.
The ruling includes schools in the state’s largest districts, Loudoun and Fairfax. Judge Norman K. Moon emphasized repeatedly, though, that he is not undoing state law and an executive order that makes masks optional.
His order is limited to the 12 families who sued in Charlottesville federal court, whose children attend 10 different school districts in Virginia and range in age from preschool to 11th grade. Those children, he ruled, can ask their schools to require masks as an accommodation for their disabilities.
Erika Donalds Blasts Jill Biden Reception COVID Restrictions: ‘I Don’t Care What Jen Psaki Says’
Erika Donalds, wife of Rep. Byron Donalds, R-FL, blasted the White House’s COVID-19 policies for unvaccinated attendees of a reception hosted by First Lady Jill Biden on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday.
Donalds tweeted a screenshot from an email she received from the White House, which said, “Guests who are not fully vaccinated must wear a mask at all times, including abstaining from eating and drinking, and maintain at least 6 feet distance from others while on the White House grounds.”
Donalds told host Tucker Carlson that she did not believe the White House guidance was based on science, and the restrictions for the unvaccinated were not “very inviting, to say the least.”
Zimbabwe Renews COVID Vaccination Drive, Targets School Kids
Zimbabwe has launched a new COVID-19 vaccination campaign that includes jabbing children aged 12 and above to rescue a drive faltering due to vaccine hesitancy and complacency.
This week schools in the southern African country have become vaccination zones with children in school uniforms lining up to get the injections.
Many parents say they support the vaccination drive to prevent schools from becoming centers of infection, although others remain skeptical.
Kenya, Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria have also launched mass vaccination campaigns.
Clearview AI’s Dystopian Face Rec Tech Now Being Used to Identify Dead Russian Troops
Notorious U.S. facial recognition technology from Clearview AI is now being used to identify deceased soldiers fallen on the battlefield.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said the military uses the tech to identify dead soldiers and then sends alerts to the fallen combatant’s family.
As a reminder, Clearview’s facial recognition system works by comparing images of a subject against its database of billions of photos scraped from the public web, including social media networks. Specifically, Fedorov said the military uses the app to find a soldier’s social media account.
Blackrock’s Fink Says Russia-Ukraine War Could Accelerate Use of Cryptocurrencies
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could accelerate the adoption of digital currencies by central banks, according to BlackRock’s Larry Fink. The CEO of the $10 trillion-asset money manager called it one of the “less discussed” outcomes of the war, which began one month ago, in his annual letter to shareholders Thursday.
Fink cited the U.S. Federal Reserve as an example, which recently published a white paper examining the pros and cons of a potential U.S. central bank digital currency.
The BlackRock CEO has previously spoken with optimism about the future of “digital currencies” but has remained cautious about bitcoin and its volatility.
EU’s Faster, Harder Stick Will Whack U.S. Big Tech
Regulators around the world have been trying to crack into the dominance that big technology firms like Apple (AAPL.O) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) have created. So far, they have been too slow and toothless to prevent them from growing.
Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which might be agreed upon this month according to European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, gets closer to changing that.
So far attempts to dent tech firms’ dominance haven’t worked. Take Alphabet’s fight with the European Commission, which started in 2010. It resulted in nearly $10 billion in fines, but the firm’s operating profit grew seven-fold since that period, to over $300 billion. Moreover, Alphabet has yet to actually pay those fines, and Google retains about 90% of the European search market.
6 Tech Giants That Have Been Breached by a Nefarious New Hacker Gang
A new hacker gang has been stealing code from some of the world’s biggest tech companies and dumping it all over the internet. The culprit is LAPSUS$, a criminal outfit whose trademark is taking on the biggest, shiniest target it can find, breaching it, then slyly bragging about the conquest. LAPSUS$ boosts victims’ data, then threatens to dump it if the price is not paid.
While it’s not totally clear who is involved in the gang, researchers told Bloomberg that one of its main hackers may be a 16-year-old boy living with his mom in England.
As more information comes in about the gang itself, here’s a run-through of the biggest targets LAPSUS$ has hacked so far.
Unvaccinated New York State Judge on Highest Court Could Be Removed From Bench + More
A Judge on New York State’s Highest Court Is Unvaccinated and Could Be Removed From the Bench
A judge on New York State’s highest court could face removal from the bench for failing to comply with the state’s COVID vaccination mandate, according to court guidelines and state officials.
Jenny Rivera, an associate judge on the state Court of Appeals, has participated remotely in the court’s activities since the fall, when the state court system’s vaccination mandate took effect and unvaccinated employees were barred from court facilities.
She is now one of four state judges who face referral to the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct, according to a person familiar with the process who spoke on background to discuss a personnel matter. The commission could move to admonish Judge Rivera, or remove her from the bench.
On Monday, Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for New York’s Unified Court System, said court administrators told 156 court employees — along with the four judges — that they failed to meet qualifications for employment, and if they do not comply with the vaccination requirements in the next two weeks they would be fired.
COVID Restrictions Are Lifting, but Unvaccinated Canadians Still Can’t Board Planes or Trains
Canada’s vaccine mandate — which took effect in November 2021 to boost vaccination rates — prevents unvaccinated Canadians from boarding a commercial plane or train in Canada to both domestic and international destinations.
Now that COVID-19 restrictions are fast disappearing, some unvaccinated Canadians question why the federal government still maintains the mandate.
Meanwhile, following a decline in COVID-19 cases after the Omicron wave, Canada’s provinces are dropping most or all of their vaccine mandates. That means unvaccinated people can return to venues such as restaurants, gyms and hockey games.
The Metaverse Could Become an Oppressive Dystopia. It Needs a Congress.
Facebook‘s recent announcement that it had changed its name to Meta in anticipation of the two-dimensional internet morphing into an immersive 3-D Metaverse has unleashed a boom in speculation about our digital future, along with investor interest.
While no one can yet know exactly what the Metaverse will be, it’s already clear that our personal and professional lives will increasingly be lived in interactive and communal virtual spaces that will sometimes feel more like multi-player video games than like searching today’s web. But if we want to make sure our security, integrity and freedom will be protected in these new worlds, we’ve got a lot of work to do.
The COVID-19 lockdowns rapidly pushed most of us into far more intimate and significant virtual lives; we didn’t just join Zoom work meetings, but also Zoom dates, parties, weddings, funeral ceremonies, and much more.
While some people may have once thought our lives could be divided into the realms of virtual and real, the transition accelerated by the pandemic has shown us that our lives are lived in both physical and virtual spaces which together constitute our reality.
U.S. Travel Industry Urges White House to Lift COVID Restrictions, Mask Mandate
The U.S. Travel Association on Tuesday urged the White House to lift COVID-19 travel restrictions and repeal a mandate requiring masks on airplanes and in other transit modes by April 18, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
In a letter to Dr. Ashish Jha, the incoming White House COVID response coordinator, the group called for an immediate end to the pre-departure testing requirement for all fully vaccinated inbound international persons and ending the mask mandate by April 18 “or announcing a plan and timeline to repeal the federal mask mandate within the subsequent 90 days.”
The travel industry also wants the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to end “avoid travel” advisories for all vaccinated individuals and urged the Biden administration to avoid the future “use of travel bans from specific countries.”
Virginia, the First State to Set COVID Workplace Rules, Drops Them
Virginia’s workplace safety board voted on Monday to withdraw the state’s emergency rules for protecting workers from COVID-19, leaving employers to follow looser guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the workplace.
Virginia, which has its own workplace safety agency, was the first state in the country to put in place emergency standards to protect workers from the virus. Under those standards, which were enacted in July 2020 under Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, employers had to require indoor masking in higher-risk areas, as well as report COVID outbreaks to the state’s Department of Health.
The current governor, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, instructed the state health board to re-evaluate the standards earlier this year, arguing that they presented a burden to businesses.
LA Set to Remove COVID Vaccine Proof Mandate
The Los Angeles City Council could lift the mandate Wednesday requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter many indoor establishments and large outdoor events.
The city ordinance, which went into effect Nov. 8, requires people over age 12 to show proof of vaccination before patronizing indoor restaurants, gyms, entertainment and recreational facilities, personal care establishments and some city buildings. The law also requires people to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to attend outdoor events with 5,000 or more people.
Earlier this month, the council voted unanimously to approve a motion rescinding the requirements, although individual businesses would be permitted to voluntarily require proof of vaccination from patrons. That motion requested the city attorney to prepare an ordinance to rescind the mandate, which will be considered Wednesday.
Michigan School Paying $190K in Dispute With Outspoken Mom
A suburban Detroit school district agreed to pay nearly $190,000 to settle a lawsuit by a parent who said she lost her job after criticizing COVID-19 policies. The Rochester district released the agreement Tuesday after a public records request by The Associated Press.
Controversies over masks, online learning, in-person instruction and other issues have hit schools across the U.S. during the pandemic. But the allegations in Rochester were extraordinary: Elena Dinverno accused the district of making calls that caused her to be fired from her marketing job.
Rochester acknowledged that a deputy superintendent, Debra Fragomeni, called Dinverno’s employer, though attorneys denied any wrongdoing. Nonetheless, the district agreed to pay $116,209 to Dinverno and $72,540 to her attorney to settle the lawsuit, records show.
Dinverno said her free-speech rights were violated when the district retaliated by calling her employer.
South Africa Begins to Lift COVID Restrictions but Leaves Its Indoor Mask Mandate
South Africa will begin lifting COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday in an address that marked the start of what he called a “new era” in the country’s fight against the pandemic.
Masks will no longer be required outdoors in South Africa but will continue to be required in public indoor spaces, including shops, offices and public transportation.
Indoor and outdoor venues that require proof of vaccination or a negative test no more than 72 hours old will be allowed to fill up to 50 percent of their capacity. Venues without such requirements must continue to adhere to the existing limits of 1,000 people indoors and 2,000 people outdoors.
New Zealand to Remove Pandemic Mandates as Omicron Wanes
New Zealand will remove many of its COVID-19 pandemic mandates over the next two weeks as an outbreak of the Omicron variant begins to wane.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday that people will no longer need to be vaccinated to visit places like retail stores, restaurants and bars from April 4. Gone, too, will be a requirement to scan QR barcodes at those venues.
A vaccine mandate will be scrapped for some workers — including teachers, police officers and waiters — though it will continue for healthcare and aged-care workers, border workers and corrections officers.
Remaining in place is a requirement that people wear masks in many enclosed spaces, including in stores, on public transport and, for children aged 8 and over, in school classrooms.
Health Data Breaches Swell in 2021 Amid Hacking Surge, POLITICO Analysis Finds
Nearly 50 million people in the U.S. had their sensitive health data breached in 2021, a threefold increase in three years, according to a POLITICO analysis of the latest HHS data.
Healthcare organizations including providers and insurers in every state except South Dakota reported such incidents last year. About half of states and Washington, DC, saw more than 1 in 10 of their residents directly impacted by unauthorized access to their health information, according to the analysis. And hacking accounted for nearly 75 percent of all such breaches — up from 35 percent in 2016.
The widespread unauthorized access of this data raises significant privacy and security concerns for consumers and the industry — costing billions every year — and highlights some of the potential consequences as healthcare modernizes and information flows more seamlessly.
NYPD Accused of Illegally Obtaining, Storing the DNA Samples of Nearly 32,000 People
A federal lawsuit accuses the New York Police Department of surreptitiously taking DNA samples without obtaining warrants and storing the genetic material in perpetuity in an illegal and unregulated database.
The database turns thousands of people, primarily Black and Latino people, into “permanent criminal suspects,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan.
The police routinely offer people who are being questioned about a crime a beverage, a cigarette or chewing gum and then collect DNA from the items, the lawsuit says. The suit claims the genetic material is stored and cataloged in a “suspect index” that puts people’s DNA profiles through “a genetic lineup that compares the profiles against all past and future crime scene DNA evidence — all without obtaining a warrant or court order to conduct these DNA searches.”
Where Does Your Info Go? U.S. Lawsuit Gives Peek Into Shadowy World of Data Brokers
There are a number of ways your personal data could end up in the hands of entities you’ve never directly given it to. One of them is through the data-broker industry: a complex network of companies that profits off the sale of data such as your location and your purchases, as well as biographical and demographic information.
Now, a new lawsuit is giving consumers an unprecedented peek into this opaque world, and illuminating just how easily a data broker can lose control of the user information it collects.
Data brokers collect personal data from a variety of sources, including social media, public records and other commercial sources or companies. These firms then sell that raw data, or inferences and analysis based on that data — such as a user’s purchase and demographic information — to other companies. Such analysis can be particularly useful for advertisers looking to effectively attract buyers.
The Dark Side for Teens of Discord Social Platform + More
The Dark Side of Discord for Teens
In recent months, large social media companies have faced renewed scrutiny from lawmakers over the negative impacts their platforms can have on teens.
President Joe Biden used part of his State of the Union address to urge lawmakers to “hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.”
Discord, however, has not been part of that conversation. Launched in 2015, Discord is less well-known among parents than big names like Instagram, even as it surged to 150 million monthly active users globally during the pandemic. The service, which is known for its video game communities, is also less intuitive for some parents, blending the feel of early AOL chat rooms or work chat app Slack with the chaotic, personalized world of MySpace.
While much of the focus from lawmakers with other platforms has been on scrutinizing more sophisticated technologies like algorithms, which can surface potentially harmful content to younger users, parents’ concerns about Discord recall an earlier era of the internet: anonymous chat rooms.
New York City: Kids Under 5 Years Old No Longer Need to Wear Masks in School as of April 4
Children under five will no longer be required to wear masks in school starting April 4, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.
The policy change comes on the heels of a weekend protest held outside City Hall, where parents demanded an end to the mask mandate for the youngest kids in schools.
City officials lifted the mask mandate for older children earlier in March, with mixed reception from the K-12 students who had been covered by the mandate since 2020.
In a news conference at City Hall Tuesday, Adams said the move to eliminate the mask rule for preschoolers was contingent on both the declining COVID-19 case counts in the city and the impact of unmasking older students.
New York City’s COVID Vaccine Rules May Change in Coming Weeks
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that the city’s vaccine mandate for private-sector and government employees may change in the coming weeks, days after the city’s new health department commissioner called the mandates “indefinite.”
“If we have to pivot and shift and come back here in a week and say we’re going to do something different, we’re going to do that,” Adams said in the Tuesday announcement where he also said mask mandates for schools could be lifted if the city’s COVID rates remain low.
However, he said that the city would endure complaints from industries including sports, as the mandate has kept unvaccinated Brooklyn Nets star guard Kyrie Irving out of home games this season. It has also been reported that the mandate could affect unvaccinated New York Yankees or Mets players if it is still in place when their home games start next month.
City Council Votes to Prohibit Employee Vaccine Mandates
Albuquerque leaders have never required city government workers to get COVID-19 vaccines and, on Monday, the City Council voted to keep it that way.
Despite some criticism that it was an unnecessary step or even a potentially problematic limitation, the Council passed legislation that bars the city from mandating that employees get the shot and from penalizing those who do not.
Dan Lewis, the bill’s sponsor, said the city could not control what the federal or state governments might ultimately require, but that the legislation would demonstrate that the local government itself would not impose a vaccine standard.
Feds Say It’s ‘Irresponsible’ to Set Date for Ending COVID Vaccine Mandates
What will it take for the federal government to lift COVID-19 vaccine mandates? Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says it’s complicated.
Conservative and NDP members of the House of Commons health committee hammered the minister with questions about a timeline, a benchmark, or a set of conditions that would trigger an end to vaccine requirements for travelers and federal employees.
“(Canadians) want to know what it will take for the mandates to end,” said Conservative critic Michael Barrett told the committee Monday.
Duclos had no single answer, instead giving a long list of indicators the federal government is watching. The decision, he said, will be based on everything from the vaccination rate, hospital capacity, and domestic and international epidemiology to the impact of long-COVID, the economy, and other social impacts.
China Locks Down City of 9 Million and Reports 4,000 Cases as Omicron Tests Zero-COVID Strategy
China has locked down an industrial city of 9 million people overnight and reported more than 4,000 virus cases, as the nation’s “zero-COVID” strategy is confronted by an Omicron wave.
Authorities have warned of the risk posed to growth by persistent lockdowns as the country strives to balance the health crisis with the needs of the world’s second-biggest economy.
Shenyang, an industrial base home to factories including carmaker BMW, reported 47 new cases Tuesday as authorities put all housing compounds under “closed management” and barred residents from leaving without a 48-hour negative test result.
‘Refuse Quarantine!’: Frustrations Mount as China Replays COVID Controls
In footage shared on social media last week, a crowd of people in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang bang against the windows of a clothing market as they shout in frustration at the announcement of yet another round of COVID-19 tests.
Though the local government quickly urged people not to “spread rumors” about the incident, the response from netizens was immediate. “Refuse quarantine!” said one. “Many people have awoken to the truth,” said another.
“It’s actually over,” said a netizen posting on WeChat under the username “Jasmine Tea”. “The common cold is more serious than this…The testing agencies want this to go on. The vaccine companies want to inoculate forever.”
Masks May Return in Schools but Won’t Be Forced as COVID Cases Spike
The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
Principals will be able to enforce mask rules in schools following a spike in student COVID-19 cases, but Queensland’s chief health officer will not move to mandate them.
Queensland authorities will also not move to implement new public health measures as a result of rising cases.
Vaccination in children was “really lower than we’d like”, Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said. With the surge in cases in schools, some private schools have started asking students to wear masks. Dr. Gerrard said he supported their decision but would not mandate it.
Advocates Urge Congress to Pass Online Kids’ Safety Reforms
Tech and children’s health advocacy groups on Tuesday sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass legislation providing protections for kids and teens online.
The current unregulated business model for digital media is fundamentally at odds with children’s wellbeing. Digital platforms are designed to maximize revenue, and design choices that increase engagement and facilitate data collection, all of which put children at risk,” the advocates wrote, according to a copy of the letter shared with The Hill.
The letter is signed by 60 advocacy organizations, including Fairplay, the Center for Digital Democracy, Accountable Tech and the American Academy of Pediatrics. It was addressed to the top lawmakers of both parties in the House and Senate.
How to Think Smartly About TikTok
Never has the world seen a social media app spread more wildly — or an algorithm that anticipates your desires more precisely — than TikTok.
It’s hard to find a kid who’s not mindlessly scrolling this never-ending stream of short videos. Two-thirds of U.S. teenagers (63%) are on TikTok, according to the market research firm Forrester. TikTok hit 1 billion global users in five years — far more quickly than nearly every other global social media network in history. The app knows young kids are on: There’s an “Under 13” setting.
TikTok’s magic lies in its algorithm, which instantly spots what you like and feeds you more and more of it. There are consequences to letting the app in on your conscious and subconscious desires.
Microsoft and Okta Are Investigating Potential Attacks by the Lapsus$ Hacking Group
Microsoft and identity authentication company Okta are both investigating potential attacks that may have been carried out by the South American hacking group Lapsus$. The collective claims to have stolen source code for Bing, Cortana and internal Microsoft projects from a server.
Lapsus$ released a torrent on Monday that’s said to contain 37GB of source code for around 250 projects, according to BleepingComputer. The group claims the data includes 90 percent of Bing’s source code and 45 percent of Cortana and Bing Maps code. Other affected projects seem to include websites, mobile apps and web-based infrastructure.
The same group has also targeted Okta, though the company says it has not yet found evidence of a new breach following an incident in January. Lapsus$ posted screenshots of what it claimed was Okta’s internal systems. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the hackers claimed not to have accessed or obtained data on Okta itself and were focused on the company’s customers, which include Cloudflare, Grubhub, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile and Engadget parent Yahoo.
Justice Department Accuses Google of Hiding Business Communications
The Justice Department has asked the judge overseeing its antitrust case against Google to sanction the company for allegedly training employees to “camouflage” business documents from being revealed by legal disputes, per a brief filed Monday.
The DOJ writes in its brief that Google teaches employees to request advice from counsel around sensitive business communications, thereby shielding documents from discovery in legal situations.
The government says Google has used this practice to withhold thousands of documents, many of which outside attorneys found should not have been attorney-client privileged.